During operation of a roller bearing, relative rotational movement between two bearing rings is supported by a rotating and/or circulating movement of roller bodies disposed between the bearing rings. Cylindrical roller bearings or tapered roller bearings are typically utilized to support larger loads, e.g., in wind turbines or motor vehicles and in the heavy machinery industry. Cylindrical roller bodies have a cylindrical shape overall and tapered roller bodies have a truncated cone shape overall. Particularly large radial loads can be supported by cylindrical roller bearings, whereas tapered roller bearings can support axial loads in addition to radial loads.
During operation, roller bearings are often exposed to a variety of external influences that may negatively affect their operating behavior and/or service life. In many situations, such negative external influences can lead to an overload of the components of the roller bearing, which may result in a premature breakdown (failure) or a reduced service life. One representative negative external influence is, e.g., oscillations or vibrations of a drive train that is supported by the bearing, which can lead to a temporary skewing or tilting of the bearing components relative to one another. This may cause a temporary overload on the roller bodies and/or on the tracks of the bearing rings, on which the roller bodies roll. In addition, recurring imbalances in housing or structural elements, which are supported by the bearing, can lead to elastic deformation of the roller bodies and bearing rings. Moreover, if the external conditions change, the roller bearing may become loaded outside of its specification, in case the roller bearings were not correctly designed or selected for the excessive external conditions, such as e.g., excessive external temperatures. Even under normal operating conditions, the roller bodies occasionally deviate from their intended path, tilt or spin excessively when exiting the loaded portion of the bearing, which can result in, among other things, high radial accelerations. These and other damage mechanisms can lead to a premature breakdown of the roller bearings.
In order to counteract the premature breakdown, in particular, of larger and highly loaded roller bearings, it is possible, e.g., to design the bearing for a significantly higher peak load than is expected in normal operation. However, this may result in increased material and manufacturing costs. Moreover, while it is also possible to frequently inspect the roller bodies, this results in higher labor costs.